Daniel hess



(ModeL) D. HESS.

Violin Case or Box.

No. 232,182.. Patented Sept. 14,1880.

ATTORNEYS.

N.PEYERS, PHGTO'LATHOGRAP'IER, WASHINGTON D C.

UNITED STATES PATENT GEETCE.

DANIEL HESS, ()F NEW'TOWN, NENV YORK.

VIOLIN CASE OR BOX.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 232,182, datedSeptember 14, 1880.

Application filed May 11, 1880. (ModeL) To all whom it may concern Be itknown that I, DANIEL HEss, of Newtown, in the county of Queens and Stateof New York, haveinvented a new and Improved Violin-B 0x, of which thefollowing is a specification. I

Heretofore violin-boxes have been made with their sides formed of piecesof wood laid horizontally and bent to form the rounded box sides, andthe lid and bottom were then fastened upon these sides. The straincaused by bending these horizontal pieces and the subsequent warpingtended to open the seams and separate the pieces. It has also heretoforebeen almost impossible to make the top of the violin-case conformprecisely to the shape of the body on account of the difficulty ofsuitably bending the sides. Another fault with the old style of case hasbeen that the lid became loose, and that dust and moisture readilypenetrated into the interior.

My invention obviates these objections and produces a violin -case whosesides may be made in any suitable shape, and are not likely to warp orcrack, and which is well adapted to shut out dust and moisture.

Another advantage of my invention is that by it violin and analogousboxes or cases may be manufactured more rapidly and cheaply than by anyof the methods now in use.

I attain many of these advantages by using strips of wood set verticallyalongside one another to form the side of the violin-box, as hereinafterdescribed.

The invention is applicable to all boxes or cases other thanviolin-boxes.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a top view of my improved violin-box withthe material of the top or cover shown partly cut away to give asectional top view of the side of the box, and showing at a, b, c, and dthe tops of the vertical side pieces.

Fig. 2 is a side view of the box. A is the lid thereof, shutting down onthe body B. a b 0 cl are vertical strips'forming the sides of the lid A,which close against the corresponding vertical strips 0 f g h, formingthe sides of the body B, each upper strip being of the same width as andlying in the same vertical plane with its corresponding lower strip whenthe box is closed.

Fig. 3 is a vertical cross-section of the violin-case. G is an innerband or ring of metal or suitable material, running around the interiorof the case at the point where the lid A and the body B come togetherwhen the case is closed. This band or rim 0 is fastened to the body B,having a flange, 00, that rests upon the body, and is nailed thereto, asshown, so that the lid A shuts down upon the flange a: and partlyembraces the band O, which thus aids in excluding dust and moisture thatmight otherwise pass through the crevice between A and B, and also actsto strengthen the bodyB and hold the strips of which it is composed inplace.

Fig. 4 is a detached view, showing the vertical strips out of which thesides of the violin-box and of its lid are made. These strips arefastened together side by side around a mold having the desired shape,as that of the sides of the violin-box in Fig. 2. The mold is thenremoved, leaving the vertical walls, which are then sawed throughhorizontally into suitable heights, as A and B, to form the verticalsides of the lid and those of the body of the box.

By using strips of a length equal to the height of several desired boxesand joining them around a mold, as above described, I can then saw offnumerous sections horizontally, as at the points 1, 2, 3, and 4 in Fig.4, thus obtaining the vertical sides for several box-lids and bottoms ofa desired shape at one time and in a very simple manner, and insuringabsolute correspondence of shape of body and lid. The lid is completedby fastenin g a top, 1), of suitable shape upon the top of one of thevertical sides, such as A, and the body is completed by fastening asuitable bottom, j, upon another vertical side, such as B. The lid andbody are then suitably hinged together to complete the box.

The process of manufacture above described may be applied to boxes ofany kind, and is not confined to violin-cases.

I claim- 1. The process herein described of construct in g the sides ofboxes and of their lids or covers, which process consists in fasteningstrips of wood or other suitable material together vertically side byside, and then sawing or cut IOO ting the connected strips to form thesides of the boxes and their covers, so that the sides of the box-lidand box-body are formed of the same strips, substantially as hereinshown and described.

2. As a new article of manufacture, a violin box and cover the sides ofwhich are formed of strips fastened together vertically side by side,those of the cover being, respectively, in line with those of the bodyof the box, substantially as herein shown and described,

3. The process of maimfacturing violinboxes which consists in settingstrips of wood vertically around the outside of a frame or mold andfastening these strips together side by side, in then removing the mold,cutting horizontally through the strips to obtain sec- DANIEL HESS.

WVitnesses JOHN (J. Bos'rELMANN, THOMAS FENTON TAYLOR.

